Enhance the empowerment of indigenous women in conflict affected areas.
Conflicts have continued to weaken community capacity for resilience, especially among indigenous people. To strengthen and promote structured intra- and inter-community dialogue across the four targeted counties, a strategy of minimizing conflicts has been developed—and is now being implemented as part of this project’s activities.
The Resilience Dialogue Strategy (RDS) is a set of practices used by indigenous communities to strengthen their resilience and minimize the impact of conflicts on their ability to cope with shocks and stresses. The strategy focuses on the following three areas:
-Strengthening community capacity to resolve conflicts by promoting dialogue and building consensus among community members;
-Building communication channels between communities across the four targeted counties; and
-Facilitating inter-community dialogue for resilience. The strategy focuses on the following three areas:
To strengthen and promote structured intra- and inter-community dialogue across the four targeted counties as a strategy of minimizing conflicts that have continued to weaken community capacity for resilience, especially among women indigenous peoples.
The project will build the capacities of diverse community leaders and organizations on strategies that enable them to effectively engage in structured dialogue and conflict resolution. This involves identifying local stakeholders who can be trained by Peace Corps Volunteers (PCVs) on how to lead group discussions about local issues, including conflict resolution. In addition, PCVs will help communities develop policies and protocols for conducting these discussions with other stakeholders such as religious leaders or youth groups.
Structured dialogue is an approach where people sit down together to address their differences through inclusive debate about common interests. It can take many forms depending on what works best for the situation at hand; however some examples include: traditional dispute resolution methods like mediation or arbitration; public meetings where opposing factions are given equal opportunities to speak; “talking circles” which allow everyone present an opportunity share their views without interruption by others before moving on to another topic; consensus decision making processes where everyone must agree before any decision can be made (sometimes referred to as “win/win” approaches).
PCVs should also focus their efforts on strengthening organizations whose goal it is provide services related conflict resolution in communities like women’s groups, youth associations or faith based institutions
Strengthen structured dialogue capacities
Provide technical support to strengthen the capacities of government actors on policies and mechanisms for structured dialogue.
The government should enhance capacity in key areas, including:
- The identification of appropriate locations for the establishment of peace committees;
- The design of a mechanism for managing conflicts that could lead to intra-community violence;
- The development of strategies to resolve conflicts in communities that have not been able to do so themselves through traditional approaches; and
- The implementation of monitoring mechanisms.
Gender and Dialogue Mechanisms
- Use gender as a lens to facilitate structured intra-community dialogue with women affected by conflict, identifying causes of conflict and peacebuilding mechanisms.
- Facilitate structured intra-community dialogue with women affected by conflict, using gender as a lens, to identify causes of conflict as well as peacebuilding mechanisms.
Create intercommunity dialogue among ethnicities
Intercommunity dialogue is a process to promote peaceful coexistence and understanding among communities. It also helps strengthen the capacity of local communities to solve conflicts, protect their rights, and achieve sustainable development goals.
It is important that women participate in this dialogue because they have a significant role as mothers, wives, daughters and sisters of men who are involved in conflicts. In addition to using their influence over men’s behavior, they can also play an active role in supporting the peace process by working together with other women from other communities through intercommunity dialogues.
To strengthen and promote structured intra- and inter-community dialogue across the four targeted counties as a strategy of minimizing conflicts that have continued to weaken community capacity for resilience, especially among women indigenous peoples.
The project will establish a mechanism for timely resolution of conflicts at the community level. This is through engaging all stakeholders in their respective communities (i.e., government officials, religious leaders/spiritual leaders, traditional leaders or elders) to discuss issues affecting peace building efforts in their communities/localities.
Promoting Peace
We are looking build the capacities of community leaders and government actors to facilitate structured intra-community dialogue and intercommunity dialogue, as well as establish a mechanism for timely resolution of conflicts.
To do this, you will:
- Organize 2 training sessions in each county, targeting women leaders from all sectors (government institutions, NGOs and civil society organizations). These trainings will equip participants with skills to support them in their work.
- Provide technical support on conflict prevention and management at local level through the use of “integrated approaches” such as those developed by UNDP Rwanda or other development partners.
Conclusion
We hope these strategies will help you to more effectively engage in structured dialogue and conflict resolution, while promoting peaceful coexistence and understanding among communities. We also hope that the recommendations made in this blog post will inspire you to take action!